OPEN-SOURCE LAMP STACKS FLY WITH IBM POWER8.

It’s not exactly news, but it is way past time to act on it. The data deluge is on. And x86 is in over its head.

More powerful, scalable and reliable systems are needed to retrieve data from systems like ERP, SCM and HRM and deliver faster user experiences and broader opportunities for new products and tools.

WEBSITES ARE

GROANING UNDER

AND MOBILE ENGAGEMENT.BIG DATATHE WEIGHT OF

Linux almost always supports website and web applications for businesses of all sizes: small, medium and enterprise.

Everyone knows that Linux was originally built to run on x86 servers.

But did you know Linux can perform a lot better if it is supported by faster hardware? That’s often the one component of the LAMP stack that is overlooked when it is time to optimize.

OPTIMIZATION OF THE LAMP STACKIS THE TYPICAL WAY IT ARCHITECTSAPPROACH INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS IN SITE PERFORMANCE.

PHP

Linux

HardwareOR

IGIN

AL

LA

MP

ST

AC

K o

n x

86

MySQLApache Web Server

HOW COMMONLYUSED SOFTWARE

IS AFFECTED

Built on LAMP, Magento is loved by mobile commerce customers—until they are overwhelmed by mobile data. Simply by rehosting Magento from Intel® to POWER8™, Magento would run much faster, providing a better online experience for millions of customers and driving more revenue and profit for the businesses thatsupport them.

And Magento is not alone. Power Systems™ is lighting a fire under LAMP across industries.

POWER8 cores have eight threads per core, four times the threads of x86 processors. This helps an optimized LAMP stack on Power Systems run the database fast enough to support twice the number of website users.

POWER8 vERsus x86 PERfORmancE:ThE sPEEd advanTagE

POWER8 cores have 16 execution pipelines, larger internal bandwidth and larger caches—to efficiently handle massive data volumes.

This results in a data packet that used to take one second from client to server taking only 140 ms.

ThE Big daTa advanTagEPOWER8 vERsus x86 PERfORmancE:

IBM helped to establish the OpenPOWER Foundation, a technical community that supports open infrastructures based on Power Architecture. With 80+ members, including Mellanox and Ubuntu, the foundation has resulted in new optimization solutions in all areas of the infrastructure ecosystem.

THE OPEN ADVANTAGEPOWER8 vERsus x86:

THE VALUE ADVANTAGEPOWER8 VERSUS x86:

The term “commodity hardware” is thrown around so often in relation to x86 servers that it is taken for granted that a server can be both cheap and basic in its performance.

Even factoring in a wide variety of workloads and stacks, a POWER8 server will out price perform x86 by doing the work of nine standard servers.

Performance Opportunity with Full System Stack Innovation

Commodity x86 Servers

Moore’s Law

2004

Pri

ce/P

erf

orm

an

ce

1

10

100

2006 2008 2010 2014 2016

POWER8 VERSUS x86: THE RELIABILITY ADVANTAGE

POWER8 servers include the following functionalities to ensure their reliability.

- Redundant bits in the cache area

- Innovative ECC memory algorithm

- Redundant hot-swap cooling

- Self-diagnosis and self-correcting of errors during run time

- Automatic reconfiguration to mitigate potential problems from suspected hardware

Power Systems has a proven legacy of providing reliable infrastructures to run demandingapplications.

THE SECURITY ADVANTAGE

The superior security of the POWER8 server results in a reduced number of intrusions and lower security-related costs compared to the x86.

POWER8 VERSUS x86:

IBM has introduced a line of Linux-only scale-out servers that include the POWER8 processors, for example, the Power Systems S822l, which is optimized for Linux. What that means is nearly seamless swapping of POWER8 into any infrastructure built on Linux. Specifically:

- Hardware-agnostic applications written in scripting or interpretive languages (Java, Perl, Python, PHP) run as is on Power Systems but not on x86.

- Most x86/Linux applications written in C or C++ require only a recompile. No source code change is needed if moved to Power Systems from x86.

BUILT FORLINUX

*Based on a POWER8 S824 with 24 cores, 256GB Memory, 3.52 GHz, RHEL 7.0, WAS 8.5.5.2, DB2 9.7, JDK 7.0 FP1 compared to an Ivy Bridge EP 24 cores, 256GB Memory, 2.7 GHz, RHEL 6.5, WAS 8.5.5.1, DB2 9.7, JDK 7.0 FP1.

Building on the collaboration with the OpenPOWER Foundation, IBM is uniquely positioned to deliver a higher-performing stack by working with key component providers while still allowing interchangeability of the components.

Here are the indisputable facts of POWER8 versus x86:

• Over TWICE the throughput compared to commodity servers built on Intel for 47% lower system costs*

• 7x reduction in latency for faster application response

• CAPI, SMT and Nvidia GPU accelerators for unlimited memory and performance

• OpenPOWER Foundation to drive open innovation

THE POWER8 DIFFERENCE

When is it time to move beyond incremental optimizations?

Power Systems is teaming up with OpenPOWER Foundation members Mellanox and Ubuntu and open-source middleware leaders MariaDB and Zend to produce a high-performance stack that renders everything else obsolete.

A MODEL FOR FULLY OPTIMIZED LAMP STACK

TU

RB

O L

AM

P S

TA

CK

on

Po

we

r w

ith

Part

ne

rs PHP

Linux

High Speed Data TransferOrc

he

stra

tio

n -

PowerKVM

Apache Web Server

READ THE FULL PAPER ON OPTIMIZING YOUR LAMP STACK

WITH POWER SYSTEMS.

SEE HOW POWER SYSTEMS CAN TURBOCHARGE YOUR

WEB APPLICATIONS.